Tag Archives: decorations

Light up my street!

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So it’s almost Christmas and this will be the last of my posts covering the most wonderful time of the year at Walt Disney World.

For those of us who have been to Walt Disney World at Christmastime we will have made our way over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios to experience the wonder of ‘The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights’.

We all know the story; Jennings Osborne and his wife Mitzi had a daughter nicknamed Breezy. In 1986 Breezy asked her parents if they would decorate their home in lights for Christmas. Jennings obliged by decorating the house with 1000 lights. Each year following Jennings would cover the house in lights, the number growing and growing. By 1993 Jennings had bought the two adjacent properties to decorate and the display had grown to cover over 3 million lights. By now the display had become famous across the world, with news crews often visiting the street.

Unfortunately some neighbours became tired of the traffic congestion caused by visitors to the display and filed a lawsuit. Jennings was finally forced to shut the display down in 1995. But the media coverage of the court case had caught the attention of the Disney company, who contacted Jennings with an offer. And in late 1995 Jennings accepted the offer to set up ’The Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights’ at Disney-MGM Studios.

Orignally the lights didn’t ‘dance’ like they do today, but for me the main difference is that they were originally set up on ‘Residential Street’ at the Studios. Residential Street was part of the original Backlot tour and was built to look like a working outdoor film set. The buildings resembled houses of famous movie and TV families, including The Golden Girls (who we all remember, right?).

During the Christmas season the houses were decorated as part of the Osborne display and when I first saw them in 2000 I loved it. Back then it was less common for houses in the UK to be decorated with outdoor lights so seeing a scene like this made me think of American Christmas movies, such as National Lampoons or Home Alone. Walking down that street with the crowd made me feel like I was looking around a studio set which was decorated ready to film a Christmas special.

In 2003 the Residential Street closed to make way for the construction of the arena for ‘Lights! Motors! Action! Extreme Stunt Show’. The Osborne Lights display was moved to its new location on Streets of America.

The display continues to grow each year and is now made up of over 10 miles of rope lights, connected by 30 miles of extension cords, held together by 2 million ties! It’s an impressive and festive sight to behold, with many hidden Mickeys to find along the way. I love that as technology moves forward so does this event….but I still miss my houses all dressed up for the season :)

Deck the halls….and Main Street USA

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We can all picture the scene in our minds…..the monorail pulls into the platform, we gather our belongings (taking small children by the hand) and we follow the crowd down the concrete slope towards the turnstiles into Magic Kingdom. Once we’re through bag search and we’ve had our tickets checked we walk through Main Street Station, our excitement building until we come back out into the daylight and here we are….in Town Square, staring down Main Street USA with Cinderella Castle in the distance.

However from November to January the scene that greets us is slightly different. There is a wonderfully tall Christmas tree in the middle of Town Square, there are garlands hanging from the lamp posts lining Main Street and the usual background music has been replaced by jolly Christmas tunes. And that is because we are here at my favourite time to visit Walt Disney World; yes its Christmas again!

All the parks, just like the resorts, have their own themed Christmas decorations. Obviously the main attraction for Magic Kingdom is the Cinderella Castle Dream Lights, 200,000 twinkling LED lights covering the castle in an icy glow. But I also enjoy the subtlety of the red and green ribbons and garlands that feature in Main Street, and the Poinsettia that are planted carefully around the important Partners statue.

As you walk down Main Street you’ll notice that the window displays have been changed for the holidays; some may even tell the tale of famous seasonal stories, featuring our favourite Disney characters of course! Others will show glimpses of the wonderful festive merchandise available in the store.

All these decorations are on show during the day and along with the seasonal music makes the main hub of Magic Kingdom feel like Christmas has really begun, but it is at night when the real Christmas spirit appears. Not only will you see Cinderella Castle bathed in pink, white and blue but if you are lucky enough to attend Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party you may just see Main Street USA covered by snow…..but that is a whole other blog post waiting to be written…. :)

‘Twas the month before Christmas…

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It’s the beginning of November and signs of the holiday season are starting to appear all over Walt Disney World. Christmas is my most favourite time of year to visit WDW; in fact, my last four visits have been at the beginning of December. I love the decorations, festive music, special events, festive merch and much much more. I thought it would be nice to share some of my observations of the season through a series of blog posts.

The Disney Resorts take on a whole new magical appearance for Christmas. Each resort will be decorated with a theme and will have a centrepiece (usually a magnificent tree) that will make guests ‘resort hop’ across WDW property to take in the sights and smells of the festive season.

Last December I was lucky enough to stay at the Wilderness Lodge Resort for the very first time, and this also happened to be in December. The lobby at WL is rustic and pretty all year round but when I saw that Christmas tree I was blown away. It really does add some seasonal magic to your stay.

I had also read so much about the life-sized gingerbread house which is constructed at Grand Floridian so I knew that this was the visit where I had to take the monorail from Magic Kingdom over to GF to see it for myself. Looking over the balcony and seeing the gingerbread house, the tree and the band I just knew it was Christmas!!

I happened to be over at the Beach Club Resort during my stay and got to see the gingerbread carousel too, this thing actually moves like a real carousel and the lobby was full of the smell of Christmas!

Just when you think the Disney resorts can’t get any prettier Christmas comes along. And this is one of the reasons why I can’t wait to get back and hop on over to the resorts showing off their seasonal displays :)